Knife crime across the country increased by 22 per cent in 2017, according to the Office of National Statistics. In the year to March 2018 there were 40,147 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument. Stabbings in London are at their highest level in seven years. In the first 100 days of 2018, 52 people were murdered in the capital, most of them with knives. Eleven of them were teenagers. Young men are the most likely group to be involved in knife crime, both as victims and perpetrators.

Without being complacent, knife crime in and across Chelmsford is not a prevalent as elsewhere - but there have been some serious and disturbing occurrences.